


The Path of Totality

by Raven_Knight



Series: 2018 Autumn OTP Challenge - Multifandom [29]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, Hope, Jedi Family Feels, Masters & Padawans, Post-Order 66
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 09:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18363128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Knight/pseuds/Raven_Knight
Summary: Before going their separate ways into exile, Obi-Wan Kenobi shares with Yoda a lesson of wisdom he'd learned from his late Master, Qui-Gon Jinn. A lesson of darkness, light, and hope.





	The Path of Totality

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This piece, archived at Archive of Our Own (Ao3), is purely a non-commercial work of fiction from which I am not profiting in any way. This work may not be reproduced, archived, or redistributed by any means and/or in any format without prior written permission from me. Permission may be obtained by contacting me at r4v3n.kn1ght@gmail.com.
> 
> I may have played around with the timeline of events a tiny bit to make this fic work, but I don’t much care. Hopefully, you won’t mind it. 
> 
> This series of oneshots belong to the 2018 Autumn OTP Challenge, though I have done away with the OTP part of it and focus instead on either romantic ships I ship or platonic relationships that fit the prompt given. This oneshot is in response to prompt #29: Long-Distance/Missing. ~ RK

**The Path of Totality**  
By  
**Raven Knight**

Bringing Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda to Naboo was a risk no one wanted to take, but one they all agreed needed to be done for one specific reason. News had broken that Padmé Amidala had died and her unborn children with her. Her body was demanded by her family and as one of the planets former rulers, Naboo Royal Tradition must be upheld and observed. Bail Organa, known to most Naboo officials as a trusted colleague and friend of their Senator, stepped forward to escort her home. No one needed to know the circumstances of her death, where she’d drawn her final breaths, or most especially that her children lived. The Alderaanian vessel arrived as soon as possible, and Bail accompanied Padmé’s medical capsule to the surface of the planet.

Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda remained onboard the ship with Padmé’s newborn children, Luke and Leia, and the two loyal droids, C-3PO and R2-D2. Obi-Wan found himself standing at a filtered viewport receiving direct sunlight. The rays coming through the viewport warmed his face but did little to warm his spirits. He doubted much possibly could anymore.

Then something about the sky gave him pause. Evidently, Naboo was about to experience an eclipse. _Fitting_ , he thought.

A light shuffling sound caught his ears and he turned to see Yoda slowly make his way to stand beside him, hunched over his gimer stick. The smaller master looked every one of his centuries-old years. He craned his head to look up exhaustedly at Obi-Wan. “Deep in thought you are, Obi-Wan,” he observed. “Share your burdens with me these final days together, will you?”

Obi-Wan shook his head. “Our burdens are now the same, Master.” 

“Have to raise a child, I do not,” Yoda pointed out softly. “A burden you chose, that is.”

“I’m not going to raise him. He goes to his family, just as you suggested. I will watch over him from a distance and interfere only when needed or when the time is right.” He turned his attention back out of the viewport, intending to watch the eclipse as he had tried to do since he was twenty-five, no matter what world he may have been on at the time.

Yoda hobbled closer to Obi-Wan’s leg. He lightly but insistently tapped his stick against Obi-Wan’s shin. “If your burdens you will not share, then perhaps share you will your thoughts? Something outside, sparked these thoughts it has?”

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said. He crouched low to the floor and offered an arm to Yoda, who immediately climbed it and settled quickly onto Obi-Wan’s back, looked over his shoulder and tried to see what had captivated his attention. Obi-Wan saved him the trouble. “I was thinking of one of my Master’s lessons to me.”

Yoda knew Obi-Wan spoke of Qui-Gon by the tone of his voice. Nothing would ever ease the pain of Qui-Gon’s death from Obi-Wan’s life. “This lesson, share it with me, will you?”

Obi-Wan’s smile was brittle. “I’m sure it’s a lesson you taught to your Padawan, who passed it to my Master.”

“Perhaps not, this lesson was passed down? Perhaps it was, a lesson of your Master’s creation for you to learn.” Yoda’s ears drooped as sadness and regret weighed his words. “All-knowing we were not. But all-wise others were. Possess such wisdom your Master did. Respect his methods I may not have, but respect his wisdom and knowledge I did. Too late we were to understand what mean Qui-Gon did.”

Obi-Wan did not acknowledge or argue with Yoda’s claims. What could he have said in direct response? When said too late, some things failed to offer the comfort intended. He chose to ignore it and focused instead on the real topic of discussion. “Would you like to hear the lesson, Master Yoda?”

Yoda nodded. “Never too old to feel like a Padawan again is any Jedi.”

All Obi-Wan heard was, ‘Yes.’

He turned his gaze back to the imminent eclipse and nodded to it to draw Yoda’s attention there as well. “My Master and I were on a mission. I can’t even remember where it was or what we’d been sent to resolve. What I learned on that mission had nothing to do with that. It had everything to do with an afternoon when Master Qui-Gon took me aside and pointed up to the sun.”

 

_Obi-Wan’s eyes traced his Master’s outstretched arm to his extended finger and out into the sky where Qui-Gon indicated. “Look, Padawan. It is not often that we get to witness a total eclipse of a sun.”_

_Obi-Wan diverted his eyes to stare in disbelief at his Master. “We’re wasting time to watch an eclipse? We’ve covered them in my astronomy courses.”_

_Qui-Gon glanced at him from the corner of his eye, one of his brows climbing in challenge. “But have you ever seen one in person? It’s marvelous.” He dug into his robes and produced two pairs of tinted safety goggles, not unlike those typically used when making repairs aboard transports. He handed one to Obi-Wan. “Put these on. We’re going to watch this.”_

_With a huff, Obi-Wan obeyed. He knew he looked ridiculous wearing them. Qui-Gon serenely sat and shifted into a comfortable position. “Sit down, Obi-Wan.”_

_“How long does this take?” he didn’t exactly whine._

_His Master smiled teasingly. “Haven’t you covered this in your astronomy course?” He yanked hard on Obi-Wan sleeve, throwing him off-balance. “Sit down, Padawan. We arrived just in time.”_

_Obi-Wan settled at his Master’s side and looked up at the mostly obscured sun. Master and Padawan breathed in unison, reaching near meditation calmness, as they observed the moon slowly cover more and more of the sun. Soon enough, only a thin sliver remained. It grew smaller and smaller. “Just wait,” Qui-Gon said._

_Obi-Wan gasped as the moon swallowed up the last speck of light from the sun and darkness descended on the planet. “There’s no light.” He looked at his Master._

_Qui-Gon turned his face to him. “Isn’t there?” he asked. Qui-Gon waited for a response for precisely five seconds. In that time, Obi-Wan thought he’d failed some sort of test. But when Qui-Gon smiled and said, “Look,” and gazed into the sky, Obi-Wan knew it hadn’t been a test at all. “Do you see it, Obi-Wan?” Qui-Gon softly asked._

_Obi-Wan studied the celestial event. In its position directly between the planet and the sun, the moon looked a depthless black disc. But surrounding it was the breathtaking spectacle of the sun’s bright corona forming a halo around the shadowed moon. “It’s beautiful, Master,” Obi-Wan said just as softly._

_“Right now, in this moment, we are in the shadow of the moon,” Qui-Gon said. “We exist in a place of darkness.” He pointed to the corona shining in a halo around the black moon. “But look, Padawan. You cannot ever fully remove the light. It’s still there, even if it’s not as bright as it was before the darkness arrived. You cannot ever fully extinguish it. There is_ always _light.”_

_“Yes, Master.”_

_He smiled at Obi-Wan, seeing by his Padawan’s expression and fixed gaze on the eclipse that he understood the lesson of their quiet moment. He wrapped his arm around Obi-Wan’s shoulders and gently pulled him close to his side. Obi-Wan resettled quickly. “This is important to remember for someone like me with more talent in the Living Force and experiencing each moment as fully as possible while in the present. But it is also important for someone like you, gifted in the Unifying Force. Don’t lose sight of the present because the future, or the wider picture, dims a little.”_

_Obi-Wan smiled up at his Master. “What if it dims a lot more than just a little?”_

_Qui-Gon tightened his arm around Obi-Wan’s shoulders. “Hold on to that light as tightly as you can.” They exchanged affectionate smiles before Qui-Gon turned back to the eclipse. Obi-Wan followed his example and observed the totality with him. Qui-Gon, sensing the beginning of the conclusion to the eclipse, finished his lesson, timing his words just right. “Darkness reigns for a time. But the light waits patiently, constantly shining bright despite the darkness trying its best to obscure it. Even in the darkest of times, Padawan, there is always light to be found. And, in time, it drowns out the darkness.”_

_Obi-Wan gasped again in awe as the eclipse ended, the moon passed out of direct alignment between the sun and the planet, and everything around them grew brighter again in the newly revealed warmth of the sun’s light. He took off the safety goggles to better experience the natural light of the day. The air itself even felt warmer than it had during the eclipse. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly and deeply. He basked in both the nature around him and the lesson his Master just taught him.  When he opened his eyes, he caught sight of his Master watching him with a hint of a proud smile. “I understand your words, Master,” he formally said. “And I thank you for this lesson.”_

_“It is always my pleasure, my Padawan.”_

They watched the partial eclipse silently until the entire event was over and twilight settled on the planet of Naboo. Obi-Wan found a smile for the treasured memory of his Master. “I think of Qui-Gon whenever I see an eclipse,” he confessed aloud. Yoda hummed. There was no judgement or disapproval in the sound. Obi-Wan didn’t know he’d feared that disapproval until it never happened. Peace filled him and he took the moment in slowly and deeply.

Obi-Wan turned from the viewport to walk into the depths of the Tantive IV, intent on checking on the two newborns left behind by Padmé Amidala. Yoda, still clinging to Obi-Wan’s back, tightened his clawed hands on the man’s shoulders. “Wait a moment,” he requested as soon as he realized where they headed.

Obi-Wan halted and waited for Yoda to gather his thoughts. He did not wait long. “A wise lesson your Master taught you.” Obi-Wan’s heart lurched. “Right, he was.” Yoda pointed to the door, through which lay tiny Luke and Leia. “Light they will be. Light _we_ must remain to teach them. This darkness, swallow us it must not. Patiently we must wait before drown out this darkness again we can.” Yoda nodded against Obi-Wan’s shoulder. “Right and wise, your Master was, Obi-Wan. Lost much we did when killed he was.”

Obi-Wan said nothing, did nothing. There was nothing he could think to say to that. He lifted his hand to the door activator, but stopped short of pushing it when Yoda spoke once more. “Understand I do, your words, Master Kenobi. Thank you I do for this lesson.”

Tears blurred his vision as he struggled to keep his voice steady. “It is always my pleasure, Master Yoda.” Obi-Wan stepped forward into the room to check on the future hope of the entire galaxy.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment - let me know what you think! ~ RK


End file.
